Hornby R4580 Eurostar Class 373/1 Divisible Centre Saloons

Description

The opening of the first high speed rail link section between London and the Channel Tunnel was celebrated with the introduction of this 6 vehicle Eurostar pack which contains not only two passenger saloons but also two divisible saloons that mark the centre of the train. Non-functional pantograph, 2nd radius or greater curves, each car is 290mm long.

The London terminus is St Pancras International, the other British calling points are Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International in Kent. Intermediate calling points in France are Calais-Fréthun and Lille-Europe, with trains to Paris terminating at Gare du Nord. Trains to Belgium terminate at Midi/Zuid station in Brussels. The only intermediate calling station in the Netherlands is Rotterdam Centraal and trains terminate at Amsterdam Centraal. There are direct services from London to Disneyland Paris at Marne-la-Vallée – Chessy, direct services to southern France (Lyon, Avignon and Marseille), and seasonal direct services to the French Alps in winter (December to April).

The service is operated by eighteen-coach Class 373/1 trains and sixteen-coach Class 374 trains which run at up to 320 kilometres per hour (199 mph) on a network of high-speed lines. The LGV Nord line in France opened before Eurostar services began in 1994, and newer lines enabling faster journeys were added later?HSL 1 in Belgium and High Speed 1 in south-east England. The French and Belgian parts of the network are shared with Paris-Brussels Thalys services and TGV trains. In the United Kingdom the two-stage Channel Tunnel Rail Link project was completed on 14 November 2007 and renamed High Speed 1, when the London terminus of Eurostar moved from London Waterloo International to St Pancras International.

Until 2010, Eurostar was operated jointly by the national railway companies of France and Belgium, SNCF and SNCB/NMBS, and Eurostar (UK) Ltd (EUKL), a subsidiary of London and Continental Railways (LCR) that owned the high-speed infrastructure and stations on the British side. Eurostar has become the dominant operator on the routes it operates, carrying more passengers than all airlines combined. Other operators expressed an interest in starting competing services following deregulation in 2010. On 1 September 2010, Eurostar was incorporated as a single corporate entity, Eurostar International Limited (EIL), replacing the joint operation between EUKL, SNCF and SNCB/NMBS. EIL is owned by SNCF (55%), Caisse de dép?t et placement du Québec (CDPQ) (30%), Hermes Infrastructure (10%) and SNCB (5%).

In June 2014, the UK shareholding in Eurostar International Limited was transferred from London and Continental Railways / Department for Transport to HM Treasury. That October, it was announced that the UK government planned to raise £300 million by selling its stake. In March 2015, the UK government announced that it would sell its 40% share to an Anglo-Canadian consortium made up of the Caisse and Hermes Infrastructure. The sale was completed in May 2015.

Technical Specification & Detail